A British Columbia Securities Commission panel has fined a North Vancouver businessman $200,000 and permanently banned him from participating in the province’s capital markets for breaching a commission order.

In 1999, after admitting to contraventions of the Securities Act when he was a director and officer of Arakis Energy Corp., James Terrence Alexander paid the BCSC $1.2 million and consented to an order prohibiting him from being a director or officer of any issuer, engaging in investor relations activities, and trading in securities, for 20 years.

In 2005, a B.C. provincial court judge convicted Alexander of breaching the 1999 order by acting as a director and officer of four private companies, and fined him $2,000.

On Oct. 24, 2007, a commission panel found that Alexander contravened the order when he acted as a director and officer of seven companies, and when he engaged in investor relation activities for one of the seven companies. The panel also found that Anne Christine Eilers acted contrary to the public interest when she assisted Alexander to breach the order by allowing him to direct the affairs of JT Alexander and Associates Holding Corp. while she was its sole director and officer of record.

In addition to imposing an administrative penalty of $200,000, the panel permanently prohibited Alexander, with limited exceptions, from trading or purchasing securities, from becoming or acting as a director or officer of any issuer, and from engaging in investor relations activities.

For her role in assisting Alexander to breach the order, the panel prohibited Eilers from becoming or acting as a director or officer of any issuer (except one she owns) for one year. She must also complete a course on the duties and responsibilities of directors and officers.